Just call me Mr. Positive in the New Year

2009 is going to be a great year, I just know it. I’m not too big on New Year’s resolutions, but I’ve sort of made one for myself and I’ll see how long I can stick to it.

I’m going to be more positive. Being negative is easy, and these days being critical of others and the way others do things is even easier.  So, here I am taking a long hard look at the New Year and I’m going to jump off the doomsday ride that we ended the year on, and I am determined to have a great year.

First, I’m going to dramatically cut back on the time I spend worrying about things I have absolutely no control over.  I’ve tried in the past not to do that, but with so much going on, and with such easy access to information worrying about stuff is natural I guess.  In my world I have control over quite a bit and I’m going to focus on making wise decisions in regard to those things that I have all or some control of. What the boss does is his job, not mine. What a duly elected official does is for the electorate to judge and I’ll just vote for the best person and pray for the ones who win.

Everyone agrees our economy is a mess. The solutions that are being proposed by some seem counterproductive to me.  But, I can only control my own economy. I can only do my job as well as I can; spend and invest as wisely as I can. I refuse to live or operate in fear. I don’t do well in those circumstances; in fact, I believe long-term fear can make for poor judgment and poor decision-making. 

Like many of you, I have real concerns about our world, about society about the moral compass that many of us were raised on. Being older and old-fashioned, I’m concerned about our priorities.  I realize I’m not the target audience for most television shows and movies. Heck, TV advertisers don’t even try to reach my age group. I think that’s a bad business model, but just add it to the list of things I have no control over. 

If you live in the NBC 13 viewing area, check and see if I’m still around come July 2 of this year. If I am, that day will mark my 30th year on television here in Birmingham. I drove here from Indiana that summer of 1979 planning on working here a year or two.  That year or two has stretched into 3 decades. I tell folks I just haven’t been able to find another job, but long ago I decided to never look for work anywhere except here, and I plan on sticking to that. 

My first Sunday School teacher Esther West taught me a song that goes, “count your blessings….name them one by one.”  That’s what I’m going to do in 2009, count my blessings.  Just counting how blessed I am will keep me busy, too busy to worry about things I can’t fix anyway.

See you tonight at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00.